Mets Down 2-0… But Can History Repeat Itself?

October 19th, 1986. The Mets lose game 2 of the World Series and face a 2-0 series deficit.

October 28th, 2015. The Mets lose game 2 of the World Series and face a 2-0 series deficit.

As everyone knows, the New York Mets would end up winning the 1986 World Series in seven games, and it would end up being a World Series for the ages.

The 2015 Mets hope to accomplish the same feat, but they know it will not be an easy task.

But those are not the only similarities between the two teams. The Mets lost game 1 in 1986 by a score of 1-0, and their second best pitcher Ron Darling was on the mound. The Mets lost game 1 in 2015 by also 1 run, by a score of 5-4, and they had their second best pitcher Matt Harvey on the mound. In game 2, both teams turned to their aces. The 1986 team turned to Dwight Gooden, and the 2015 team turned to Jacob deGrom.

The Mets blasted World Series led  by their great starting pitching, early ambush on offense, and amazing closing by Jeurys Familia. They won a very close series against the favored Los Angeles Dodgers by winning in 5 games. Then the Mets went on to face the Chicago Cubs, who were also heavily favored. But the Mets silenced the critics by manhandling the Cubs, while sweeping them in four games. The Mets never trailed in the series and were carried by their great starting pitching.  

On the other hand, the Royals got to the World Series being lead by their lights out bullpen, and their timely hitting. In the ALDS, the Royals faced the Houston Astros, who many people predicted to be a 90 loss team, but the Astros gave them all they could handle. The Royals ended up beating the Astros in 5 games, but the Royals were resilient in every game. They trailed in all 5, but ended up coming back in 3 of them. Then they went on to face the offensive juggernaut Toronto Blue Jays. The Royals got out to a 2-0 series lead and they never looked back. They ended up dropping games 3 and 5, but they were still in the drivers seat the whole series. After they beat the Blue Jays, they went on to go and face the Mets.

This series was being described as one of the most evenly matched series in recent history, and game 1 lived up to the hype. The Royals started off on a historic start, when ALCS MVP Alcedis Escobar led off the first inning with an inside the park home run. But the Mets answered back. The Mets scored three unanswered runs, by a RBI single from Travis d’Arnaud, a home run by Curtis Granderson, and a sac-fly from Michael Conforto. But the Mets couldn’t hold the lead. Ace Matt Harvey gave up two runs in the bottom of the 6th inning, and the game was tied at 3. But in the top of the 8th, the Mets got lucky. With Juan Lagares on second base, Wilmer Flores hit a ground ball to first basemen Eric Hosmer. But the ball ended up taking a odd bounce and went by him and the Mets took a 4-3 lead. Then in the bottom of the 9th, the Mets turned to their go to reliever Jeurys Familia to close out the game. But the Royals stuck gold. With the Mets being two outs away from a win, Familia left a sinker hanging, and Alex Gordon didn’t miss it. He crushed a 430 foot home run to dead center field, the game was tied at 4. The game would stay in a deadlock tie until the 14th inning. The inning started with David Wright making an error, and the Royals would make the Mets pay. They ended up loading the bases with no outs, and then Eric Hosmer hit a walk off sac fly, and the Mets lost a heart breaker in game 1.

Game 2 was a different story. The Mets had their ace Jacon deGrom on the mound, and the Royals had their’s in Johnny Cueto. The Mets got out to a 1-0 lead, but that was not enough. The Royals ended up tagging deGrom for 4 runs in the 5th inning, and they wouldn’t relinquish that lead. Cueto was just dominating the Mets, an he held them to no runs for the rest of the game. The Royals scored 3 runs in the 8th, and they had a comfortable 7-1 lead. The Royals won by that score, and they put the Mets in a huge hole heading back to New York.

Even though they are down 2-0, history could be on the Mets side. In 1986, the last time the Mets won the World Series, they lost game 1 by one run, and they lost game 2 by six runs. If the Mets could bounce back from this, it would make for an amazing story. The Mets turn to rookie Noah Syndergaard in game 3, and hopefully he could get the Mets back to their winning ways.